Theater of Witness is a form of performance in which the true life stories of people whose voices haven’t been heard in society are performed by the storytellers themselves as a way for audiences to bear witness to significant social issues. The theater productions are scripted from individual and group interviews as well as a variety of creative process techniques and consist of scripted text, music, movement, imagery and film projection. The productions are created with the performers who themselves have directly experienced the issues being explored. Theater of Witness invites audiences to put a face and heart to societal issues of suffering and to celebrate the power of the human spirit to grow and transform. Theater of Witness is a form of peace building and inspiration.

Join us on November 25th at 8 pm Eastern as Katherine Josten, artist and founder of the Global Art Project for Peace discusses how local communities from across the globe actively join together to promote peace through art. Hear how this work inspires personal and social evolution through creativity and learn how you can participate in this project with thousands of others to share your own artistic expression of friendship and peace to form a Global Community.

The program will explore how the Dances of Universal Peace can help to open the way toward conflict resolution. Over more than 45 years, the Dances of Universal Peace have traveled to as many as 50 countries, and more than 200 circles meet regularly in North America alone. The Dances help to bring people together in the spirit of understanding, cooperation, and peaceful co-existence, and help to awaken enduring peace in the hearts of all participants.

Often it seems that all we see in the media are violence, conflict and competition, whether it’s in the news, in entertainment or even in sports reporting. And this can have a significant impact on how we feel, how we see the world and how we deal with conflict. Marianne Perez de Fransius will share how exposure to so much violence in the media is negatively affecting us as individuals and as social beings and how to break the cycle. You’ll learn where to find media that gives you food for creative, collaborative and compassionate thoughts, including two initiatives that Marianne is involved in: Peace is Sexy and the Peace Superheroes.

PeaceTones is a nonprofit initiative that works with musicians living in communities fractured by social conflict and economic inequality, empowering voices that aren’t traditionally heard through education on legal rights, marketing and technology. They give musicians with positive social messages the tools to protect their music and earn an income from it, fostering community development based on arts that is powerful, inspiring and valuable.

Call to action: Visit PeaceTones to learn more and join the movement by becoming a member for as little as $25! Support our musician empowerment work and get free stuff like t-shirts, calendars, early release music and more!